Random Blogging

Everyone looked amazing, and though I didn’t wear the heels all night, I did get a few compliments on them.

The Marines all looked handsome in their uniforms and Cupcake was very well behaved so the night was a big success.

I got to dance with Bagpiper a few times, even though he was running back and forth onto the stage to run sound. It was nice to be able to dance a couple of songs with him.

Yesterday I was so lazy. I kept meaning to do dishes and laundry, but it never got done. I just kept pushing it off until finally I just gave up on trying to clean and declared Sunday a lazy day of doing nothing productive.

Bagpiper was more productive than I was. He bought a riding lawn mower with the income tax money since our yard is a bit on the large side (and because he’s always wanted one) and yesterday he got to test it out.

I’m pretty sure that mowing the lawn on a riding lawn mower while drinking a beer was on his bucket list, so that’s something he can cross off. He had way too much fun doing the lawn…

Bagpiper was off today and is off again tomorrow, which is nice.

Today I went walking with a friend and our daughters. It was really nice (and definitely motivating) to meet up and walk around base pushing our strollers and having a nice chat. When I got home I ordered my jogging stroller. Bagpiper agreed that since he made a big purchase for himself, I could make one too. It’ll probably be about three weeks to a month before it arrives, but that’s OK. I can’t wait til it arrives!

Since the jogging stroller I decided on was only $135 on Amazon (much cheaper than other brands that were upwards of $300), I’m also ordering (finally) the Knit Picks interchangeable harmony set. SO MUCH FREAKING SQUEE. I’ve always wanted this needle set.

Had to take the dog to the vet on base to get her bordatello vaccine so that the groomers would continue to see her. This may not seem like a big deal, except that the vet on base apparently only does vaccincations on Wednesday and only as a walk-in. Yea. I know. Doesn’t make ANY sense.

Because this would be trying enough if were just me and the dog, I enlist the help of a friend because Me + Dog + Baby = disaster waiting to happen. So I was joined by a friend and I am eternally grateful that she was with me, cause wow.

We arrive at the vet just before they open (10a). There’s already a line about 20 people long. This line is out the door. So we’re out the door. We sign in and stand in the back (there are no seats available). After about an hour of waiting, we get seats. Baby is asleep for a lot of this (thank goodness), but of course at some point she gets hungry. I feed her, burp her and then go into the one bathroom to change her.

Oh. There’s no changing table.

I leave my friend with the dog so that I can change the baby in the car.

We waited a good FOUR HOURS before they finally saw us in the exam room. FOUR FREAKING HOURS.

While in the exam room the vet techs ask if I want to give Sushi some other shots cause she’s due for them in April. Not wanting to go through this ordeal again, I agree. They quote me a price, I say yes because I’m POSITIVE I have that amount in my checking. But then they had to give the dog some Benadryl, and neglected to tell me that was extra money, so then my card didn’t work because I didn’t have those few extra bucks in my account (silly, stupid me did not think to transfer money before I left this morning).

The vet is nice and says I can leave the dog, go get money and come back because they don’t close until 4:30pm. I’m about to do this, when my AWESOME FRIEND says she’ll pay and I’ll just pay her back later. So she pays. I’m SO grateful for not just her help today, but for that too because I really did want to go back to Foster just to come back to Kadena and the vet. So she pays and we hit up the Burger King drive-thru because neither of us had breakfast and it’s now nearing 3pm and we are starving. We get huge Whoppers with cheese and bacon, and basically have the most orgasmic lunch ever.

Afterward, we hang out at my house for a while because the husbands are not off work yet. She crochets Cupcake a cute pair of red booties to match a little dress I have for her. She leaves and I decide to nap (Cupcake is knocked out in her crib by now — she had a long day too!). Just before 7pm Bagpiper calls and I go pick him up and we pick up some more fast food (cause I was not cooking today) and now here I am. Exhausted and sleepy.

Tomorrow I relax as much as possible. Maybe get some laundry done cause I’m running low on clothes.

Friday is Cupcake’s 2 month check up.

Next week I start a new work out program with a group called WOOP (Women on Okinawa Pavement). It’s Couch to 5K (C25K), and I’m going to be walking/running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (Friday with the Stroller Warriors group) and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I’ll do my Zumba.

Here’s hoping I have no more long days at the vet and also that I can keep up with the work outs.

We’ve moved to on-base housing and love it so much more than off base. Our off-base house was gorgeous and had lots of room, but the staircase was so narrow and steep that we’d been sleeping downstairs since Cupcake was born (and after buying a king-sized mattress in November, sleeping on the couch seemed like a crime!)

So Bagpiper looked into switching us to on-base housing and we moved in a couple of weeks ago and we’re all settled and unpacked now. We have cable TV (we didn’t have that off base) and yesterday the internet was connected so I can play online again.

Our on base house is definitely a little smaller than our off base one, but it’s still plenty of room for us and the best part? AMERICAN APPLIANCES. It feels so so so so so good to have an American oven and American washer/dryer. We’re also a lot closer to Bagpiper’s job. So close, in fact, that he sometimes runs to work in the mornings. He’s even been coming home for lunch! It’s nice and we’re all happy.

Except maybe the dog.

She does really good around the baby, but I think she’s starting to get jealous of the attention the baby gets. Bagpiper and I make sure to give the dog plenty of attention, but Sushi doesn’t seem to think it’s enough and wants more and is acting out….by pooping in the house.

Yesterday she even pooped on the couch!

I was livid.

We take her out just as often (and maybe even more so) than before and she’ll pee and poop outside, but she’ll also poop inside, too. It’s becoming less frequent so hopefully she’s adjusting to having a baby in the house, but UGH! I hate it.

Cupcake is getting so big! We’re fitting into newborn size clothes now and started to smile and even giggle. I keep trying to catch that giggle on camera, but so far I haven’t been able to capture it.

She’s been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks now and that has definitely been such a blessing. Everyone told me that babies didn’t start sleeping through the night until they were about three months old. Cupcake started sleeping through the night at just six weeks! We’re definitely very lucky!

Since I’ve been getting more sleep it’s given me more energy to get things done during the day. I’ve started writing again — I’m currently working on the first draft of a romantic thriller and I’m also editing a novella that I keep ignoring (I’m not a fan of editing/revisions). I’ve done some knitting — I made a beanie for the Bagpiper, some hats for Cupcake and I’m working on a small sweater for her. In a couple of days I’m starting a Knit-A-Long with Allyson from The Sweatshop of Love. I’ll be knitting a gorgeous cardigan for myself. I’ve ordered my yarn and it should be arriving this week.

I’ve also started a work out program. I started yesterday (Feb. 1) with Zumba 2 for the Wii. It’s a lot of fun and definitely burns the calories. I like that the game tells me how accurate my movements are and how many calories I’ve burned. I’m tracking my eating and work out habits on Lose It! I’ve used the site before and liked it, so I’m starting again. My plan is to do Zumba every day and also walk around the neighborhood every day. Next month I’m hoping to start P90X in addition to Zumba and walking daily.

P90X is a tough, tough workout, which is why I’m not starting with that. I’ve done it before and I know it works, but since I haven’t worked out in a looong time, I figure it’s best to start with walking and Zumba before jumping into P90X. I may not even start P90X in March. I may wait until April. We’ll see.

And that’s about covers the news.

Now that there is internet in the new house, I hope I can get more regular with my blog updates.

However, in my defense, a lot of stuff happened that prevented me from blogging. Actually, stuff happened that made me forget I even had a blog to update.

So…recapping:

November 2011

It was birthday ball season for the USMC, which meant the Bagpiper was super busy playing gigs. This was month eight of the pregnancy and I found myself sleepy a lot.

Also? NaNoWriMo — I won, but just barely. JUST BARELY.

Cooked my first ever Thanksgiving meal on my own. Since it was just me and the Bagpiper, I cooked a turkey breast rather than an entire turkey. Besides, an entire turkey would not have fit in my countertop oven. 😛

December 2011

The big month.

Bagpiper had some Christmas concerts early on, two of which he almost missed due to my almost being induced.

I was induced a week early, and on December 11, 2010 at 10:12pm, the Cupcake was born at a whopping 5lbs 2oz. Twenty-seven hours of labor (for which I slept through most of it thanks to the magic of an awesome epidural) and less than eight minutes of pushing.

I’m a mommy, y’all!!

Even though I was full term (38 weeks) when I had her, she was so tiny! I had to have my mom send me some preemie clothes for her, because none of the clothes I had ready for her (and there are a lot) fit! And finding preemie stuff out here was pretty impossible. Not even the newborn hats fit her, so I had to do some quick knitting and make her some teeny tiny hats.

Now, however, she’s pushing close to 7lbs, so the preemie stuff is almost outgrown and we’re almost fitting into newborn stuff! LOL

Granted, most of you (if not all) who read this blog already know that Cupcake made her arrival (I’ve only been tweeting a photo everyday…lol). But on the off chance you haven’t seen the pictures on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook…

Brand new!

So pretty...just like mommy!

OK, so I’ll stop there, because I could fill this post with HUNDREDS of pictures of Cupcake.

So after her birth, I was stuck in the hospital for a full week due to my elevated blood pressure. Not high, but higher than normal so to err on the safe side, I was kept in the hospital with nurses checking my BP every 2-4 hours. It sucked.

The bright side was that Bagpiper had two weeks off for paternal leave, so he was home with me and Cupcake. Even better? Paternal leave ended the day after Christmas, but the band was still on leave, so he had another two weeks off of work with a few half days thrown in — so basically, he had almost a month off. It was glorious.

So we had the best Christmas present of all, and we didn’t even mind that we weren’t getting any sleep.

We were able to trade off on sleepless nights and night feedings, which worked out great. Now Cupcake is eating pretty regularly every three hours.

January 2012

And that brings us to the new year!

Today is my birthday (Jan 9) and Bagpiper gave me the best present yesterday. He gave me an afternoon and evening of sleep and he took care of dinner. He wanted to take me out to dinner, and that was the original plan, but I fell asleep on the couch and he let me snooze.

When I woke up he asked if I still wanted to go out or if I wanted him to pick something up. So no glamorous birthday meal, just a chicken nugget meal from McDonald’s, but it was still an awesome gift, I think!

Yesterday I also wrote out all my writing goals for 2012. A lot of them focus on editing and revising some finished stories I have. I tried some editing/revising last year and I failed miserably. Not just because of being pregnant and moving to Japan, either. I just kept pushing it aside in favor of plot bunnies. Pregnancy and moving were just bonus excuses.

This year, however, I want to finish and be done with my finished stuff. Ideally, I finish (as in write, edit and revise) at least three manuscripts. Maybe even think of submitting one or two somewhere, but I may save that for 2013.

Other goals include finishing two or three unfinished stories, planning for NaNo 2012 (no it’s not too early) and learning to juggle mommyhood with writing. I’m also aiming for writing 5K a week.

For me these goals are kind of lofty, but I’d rather aim too high than too low.

And that’s about it…

…ooh! I just found out my best friend from high school is being stationed to Japan later this year! Huzzah!

OK. Now for real that’s all. 😉

I promise to try to update regularly from now on and not just with pictures of the Cupcake.

He still thinks he’s right about my not playing the game for more than five minutes, but you know what? Who cares. Even if through some divine miracle he is right? I still have the game which means I won — and really, that’s all that matters in the end, right? Bwahaha!

I introduced my husband to a new show, “The Colony”. I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with garlic bread. I got my husband a beer when he asked for one. I carefully and lovingly put the leftovers in a plastic container that my husband could take to work for his lunch.

This morning, I was a good wife.

After asking my husband last night to wake me up so I could have the car today, I woke up without being grumpy. When my husband was in the shower, I did not bang on the door to scare him like I did the other day (man, that was a really fun morning, too). I agreed to wash his uniforms while he was at work, since he forgot to do it last night. I made him breakfast.

While he was eating breakfast, I poked around on Pinterest, to see what was newly pinned.

I found gloriousness pinned. Awesome, amazing glory pinned in the form of a sonic-freaking-screwdriver Wii remote. I clicked. It wasn’t just a Wii remote, y’all. It was a SONIC SCREWDRIVER Wii remote. WITH A DOCTOR WHO GAME.

All at once, all the fun I was going to have with this flash in my head.

I would become a female reincarnation of the Doctor. I would put on a bow tie and wave my sonic screwdriver at the TV and do all sorts of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff and save the world on an hourly basis.

My TV would turn into my own personal Tardis, zooming me around all of time and space. I’d get to yell out things like, “Come along, Pond!”

Basically, my life was going to be awesome.

My life was going to be complete.

Being a good wife, I wanted to share my joy with the Bagpiper — who, I would like to add has FINALLY started getting into Doctor Who. He started with series five (not one, like I want him too, but we’ll get there), and he’s really enjoying it.

So I do the only thing possible at this point. I turn around and squee, “OMG OMG OMG!”

Bagpiper: “What?”

Me: “There’s a sonic screwdriver Wii remote. WITH a game! I must have!”

At this point, I’m already looking around for my wallet and debit card.

And then, tragedy strikes my happy marriage.

My reaction:

I didn’t understand. Like, I really didn’t. I must have misheard him. Surely. I tell him again exactly what it is. Sonic screwdriver. Doctor Who game. Sonic screwdriver remote. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

He was really saying no to this. After all the goodness of my wifeyness in the past 24 hours, he was saying no to me. He was saying no to our unborn child. Because surely, unborn baby would feel mommy’s euphoria in playing such a magical game.

It was time to take some drastic measures. I did sad panda face mixed with puppy eyes. I wanted him to know I was hurt. Emotionally scarred, even. I reminded him of the good things I’d done, like make him the breakfast he was enjoying.

I told him that I would play because it game with a sonic screwdriver. How could I not play?

I begged.

I pleaded.

I had to make him see that this was important.

He still was not budging on the issue.

I was flabbergasted.

Freaking flabbergasted.

What happened to my husband?

The one that loves me? The one that wants me to be happy? The one who re-enlisted into the military to provide for his family.

Doctor Who game with sonic screwdriver falls under the “providing for you family” umbrella. It’s even under “necessities”, just below “roof over your head” and just above “groceries”.

I tried one more time.

He had to say yes. My husband is a nice, loving, caring man.

He could say no to anything else, but not this. I was willing to give up yarn buying for a week! Book buying for a day! Anything to make him say yes.

But no.

Clearly, I did not marry the romance hero I thought. My kilt-wearing, bagpipe playing Marine husband was morphing into a Cyberman, deleting all my requests for this game and all my chances of happiness.

He became an Evil Husband of Doom.

So, I sat quietly for a minute, thinking of what to do next.

I came up with the perfect and most flawless of counter-arguments.

“It comes with a sonic screwdriver. So really, all your “reasons” are invalid. INVALID, I SAY.”

If I had a pair of gloves, I would have slapped him with them as if I were challenging him to a duel. Because I was challenging him. There is no argument better than “It comes with a sonic screwdriver.”

I had won. I knew it. And he knew it.

But he just rolled his eyes as if it were nothing and went back to his coffee.

Clearly, I have to play hard ball.

For now, I’ve “let the matter go”. My dog arrives tomorrow night, so it’s not like I would play the game this weekend anyway. Even if my dog wasn’t arriving tomorrow, mail takes like two weeks to reach me, so it’d be awhile before I could play anyway.

But mark my words…I will order this game and get the sonic screwdriver. I will be the female reincarnation of the Doctor and I will do wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. Instead of saying, “Come along, Pond!” I will say, “Come along, Sushi!” because my dog will be here and she will be my companion, because clearly my “loving” husband has no desire to fill this roll.

And when the game arrives and my dreams are fulfilled, he won’t be able to do anything about it. Because games are like DVDs. Once you rip off the plastic wrapping you cannot return it. He will simply have to sigh and accept that I won. And if he can’t, then I’ll just sonic him into acceptance.

Or silence.

Whichever.

Bwahahaha!

Take that, husband.

You know, I bet Rory would have given Amy the game without all this fuss.

ETA: Somehow, I’ve gotten into my head that if I can get 100+ people to comment on this blog post, each comment will equal $1 my husband will have to put forth toward the purchase of this game.

I’m not sure if this will really work, but it’s worth a shot. Help a girl, out…comment. Share. Tell your friends to comment. Show my husband all the reasons that having this game is necessary.